Essay on the Knights Tale

The movie  A Knight's Tale directed by Brian Helgeland made in 2001, shows significant themes  of identity, classism and forbidden love. Although this movie  is set in  medieval times we as viewers can correlate it to our modern society through  identity, classism and forbidden love. A Knight's Tale is about a squire who is named William, who wants to “change his stars,” by becoming a knight and finding the love of his life.  Also proving he could, “change his stars,” and therefore determining his own future.              

Identity is shown in the first scene by stating people trying to find their identity sometimes have to change or hide who they are to be accepted by the people around them. This scene in A Knight’s Tale is when Sir Ector dies, William comes up with the idea of becoming a knight, taking Sir Ector’s place in the jousting competition. William has to hide his real identity in this competition so he can be accepted by those around him. Techniques that help us understand this are the dialogue and costume. Roland asks his friend “What’s your name, William? What’s your name William Thatcher …. It’s not Sir William, or count or duke or earl… It’s certainly not King William, you have to be of noble birth to compete.”  William knowing this and still wanting to compete, shows that he has always desired this and now has the opportunity to become a knight.  William strips the armour from  Sir Ector's dead body and puts the loosely fitting armour on himself, suggesting that he wasn’t born to be a knight, probably due to his lack of funds to obtain sufficient food. This subject of his armour not fitting well, arises when a women blacksmith named Kate said  “The armour you wear, it wasn't made for you was it?”  

He looked dumbfounded when she said that. This shows that he is scared to get his false identity exposed. Changing identity is linked to the wider aspects of our lives for people to be able to move freely within the constraints of societal norms. The movie depicts the importance of having equal opportunities for all people. We can relate this to the loss of identity for the Māori  people who had their way of life stripped from them as they were forced to comply with the European  dominated system.

William’s forbidden love for Jocelyn is due to classiest restraints. Interclass marriages were not tolerated in those medieval times . However, this does not stop William’s and Jocelyn's romance from blooming, as Jocelyn accepts William's non-noble blood this is shown in one of the last scenes.  Techniques that help us see this are dialogue and body language. Jocelyn  comes to Williams' bed side as he has been hurt, due to the may loss in the jousting competition. It is dark and Jocelyn enters his tent and says “I Jocelyn your prize .” with her saying this she has stated that she loves William no matter if he loses or wins. Williams replies to this being confused saying he is not “worthy of a prize.” Her hands being shown prominently  in this love scene as if she had nothing to hide she goes to his bed to ask him

When Jocelyn asked William “My maid tells me that sometimes your violets that they call you William is this so sir Ulrich “ she now fully aware of his place in the social strata, her love for William didn’t change. This can be linked to modern day society and its judgement on other people's love; for example a community that has been looked down upon is the LGBTQ+ they are discriminated against by a society that does not understand. This community :  stays strong,  loves who they want to love; does not change to fit in societal norms.

In conclusion A Knight’s Tale  set in medieval times themes  which included identity forbidden love and classism can be observed in modern society. Identity in a knight's tale consisted of changing oneself to be accepted within the social hierarchy; we can see this in modern day New Zealand's society by how Māori culture being unsocially accepted by all then finding their identity and finally pushing back the identity of a European standpoint. Forbidden love  in A Knight's Tale showed that sometimes we can’t be with who we want to due to societal expectations on relationships. For example how society shames what is different to them, we see this happen to a wide spread of communities but many in the LGBTQ+ community.